dotHackForgotten
by Tokashiro
Summary: In a time far beyond the adventures of Haseo and pals. The World has entered it's 7 year anniversary. Kuromi is a normal popular in her high school who lives life in the norm. When she discovers the adventure there is to be had in The World...
1. Chapter 1:The Beginning

"_Well be together forever right?" the boy asked looking to the girl sitting next to him. They were both only in grade school, both around 12 years old. Sitting on adjacent swings; hands cupped together. The girl smiled a bright smile before staring at him with her pale blue eyes. "Of course I couldn't think of anything I would want more, then being with you . . . ,"(AN: The name of the boy is spoken but not heard.) the girl replied as she watched the young boy stand to his feet. She watched him fiddling around with something and stood as well wondering what he was up to. _

"_Alright, it's a promise then ," he said turning to face her, hands behind his back, "Now close your eyes." She did what he had told her and closed her eyes tightly. _

"_Okay open em."_

_When she opened her eyes she noticed the red and black, flame bandanna he had always worn wrapped around her wrist. He grinned widely and chuckled as she pulled at the goggles around her neck and placed them on his head giggling softly. "Now we'll never forget each other . . . ," she said as they smiled at each other and laughed. _

"_Of course we wont Kuromi-Chan. Together forever."_

Kuromi sighed as she got up out of the bed. Fourth time this week, old promises seemed to be haunting her a lot nowadays. She pulled on her school uniform and adjusted her hair in the mirror atop her dresser. She had changed a lot since that day five years ago. Her raven colored hair had grown much longer, reaching almost her mid back, and she had developed into a young woman. Reaching onto the dresser she grabbed the red and black bandanna, the same she had received all those years ago, tying it onto her head. 

"I'm leaving for school mom!" Kuromi shouted as she made her way down the stairs and out the door. Today would be Kuromi's 11th grade year in high school. After moving away all those years ago, she had made quite a name for herself; quickly becoming one of the most popular girls in her school. A few of her friends caught up to her on the walk, gossiping as they usually did. "Hey did you hear? There's a new guy coming to our school this year."

"Yeah, and I heard he's really hottie."

"No one knows his name though." 

Kuromi listened in on their conversation, a little curious at first, then slowly losing interest. As they arrived at the front gates of the school. Walking down the hall, students moved out of the way making way for Kuromi and her 'posse' of friends. Even upper-classmen moved aside. Kuromi truly hated being treated like some sort of celebrity. 

There were squeals and screams of joy heard from down the hallway. The boy was walking down the hallway in a confused daze. All the girls seemed to be making a big fuss over his arrival, but he didn't seem to know or care why. He yawned as he moved the bangs of his black hair out of his bright green eyes. The girl's continued following the boy around, asking him all sorts of questions. 

"Where are you from?"

"What's with that jacket?" 

"Are you single?"

He stuttered hesitantly as he tried to answer all the questions. Kuromi watched the girls from a distance, not wanting to become involved in their fan-girlish obsessions. She needed an escape from the usual patterns of high school life. Kuromi was sure she wasn't going to find it here, and headed on to class. 

Later that day, things went on as they usually did for Kuromi. After school, she stood on the side of the town market, drinking a can of cream soda. There was the predictable random guy of the day with his hands around her waist. Kuromi never had to try hard to attract guys, they always just seem to flock to her. Whether it be for her looks, or her popularity, each one was no different then the last one; trying to make moves on her like grabbing her inappropriately or trying touching her butt. This one was no different. 

"Come on let's go do something," he suggested leaning his head on her shoulder, speaking in her ear softly. 

"So what do you recommend?" she asked taking another sip of her soda. "Well we could go to my place and listen to some music, or watch a movie or something." "Sounds interesting," she replied in a half sarcastic tone. 

"Wow, thanks.." he said disappointedly, but that wouldn't stop him from keeping up his endeavor. "_All guys are the same.." _Kuromi thought to herself as she sighed.

"Mom! I'm home!" Kuromi yelled as she shut the door behind her. She made her way up stairs and to her room. There was a box sitting outside her door. No one usually sent her anything outside of Christmas or her birthday. _"What could this be?" _Taking the package into her room, she sat it onto the floor tearing into it curiously. The box inside read in bold white lettering: The World Ver. 7.9. 

"It's some online game from Japan. Your uncle thought you might like it," her mom said from the door, "Just don't waste all your time playing it."

Kuromi wasted no time installing the game to her laptop. She wasn't much of a gamer, but she enjoyed keeping up with the more interesting new titles, which her uncle knew well. Sending games to her on her birthday or Christmas. She picked up the controller as she pulled on the headset slowly, starting up the game. It then lead her to a desktop like screen as a notice blinked alerting her of a new message. It was just the usual welcome message, so she didn't pay much attention to it. As she moved on to the main game, she was amazed at how in depth the level of customization was, there were tons of character classes to choose from and clothes for your character. She chose the gunner class, long range with fairly higher attack power than the archer. She gave her character long red hair, tied back into a loose ponytail, a black, bikini-style top, and black shorts that came a little above her knees. And just for kicks, she found a bandanna similar to the one the boy had given her. 

As she finally finished her character, she found herself in the middle of the Delta root town. There were shops and markets all around, and plenty of players as well, running around the city almost aimlessly or talking with other players. Her rifle weapon was slung over her shoulder in the large holster. 

"Wow," Kuromi said looking over her hands, "Everything's so lifelike." Kuromi decided to get right to playing the game and headed for the nearest warp gate. It didn't take her long to find it, with the help of the mini map, She stood for a moment thinking of what keyword she wanted to use for her first dungeon. She remembered a good dungeon for beginners from the manual. 

"Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground," Kuromi spoke to the warp gate. It teleported her to a new area, more spacey and grassy; filled with old ruins and worn down statues. Small harmless monsters roamed the area. Kuromi ginned pulling her rifle from behind her back and began testing her skills, quickly making work of a few easy monsters. After leveling up a few good levels, Kuromi headed toward the area on the map the boss was said to be hanging around. She hadn't noticed any other players since she came to the area. Maybe there weren't so many new players on today using this server. Kuromi could see the boss up ahead walking around the plain. Kuromi grinned pulling out her rifle and took aim. "Fire Bullet!" the flaming shot hit the monster right on catching the monster off guard and causing the battle area to finally take effect, forming around Kuromi and the monster in a tall circle. Upon closer inspection the attack hadn't even dented the monsters health, no a single change. She kept firing attacks at the monster, all to no avail as she dodged the monster's attacks as best she could. "That's weird, I'm not doing any damage," she said preparing to fire another shot. The silent clicking of the gun; however, signaled that she was out of MP, "Shit.." 

The monster took this time to sneak in a powerful swinging blow, knocking Kuromi back into the battle area wall inflicting extra damage to her. She slowly stood to her feet, with barely any health points remaining. "Crap.. I'm going to end up getting killed her already," she muttered silently. The monster lunged out at Kuromi, preparing to make its final attack on her.

"Tiger Storm!!" 

A figure jumped out into the battle slashing wildly with the glaive weapon left and right, slowing the monster down.

"Darn it's one of those monsters," he said lowly. Kuromi could only see the players back, but from what she had heard it was a male. His hair was short and silver, and his character had large, angelic black wings. He stood almost staring down the monster. 

"_What's he doing?" _she thought to herself watching. The monster roared lunging at the boy, but hit something like a wall that didn't seem to be there and was then launched back into the area wall. A strange circular barrier encased the monster as it rose back to its feet. Kuromi noted the strange shadow looming over the boy's head, like some virtual ghost. 

The boy held out his arm as it turned into a large barrel with cooling fans angled around the end and they began spinning furiously. 

"Data…Drain!" a large beam of energy shot from the gun hitting the monster before reversing seemingly absorbing the data from the monster itself. It changed forms turning into a harmless rabbit-like creature attempting to hop away. The boy quickly finished the monster off, turning his attention to Kuromi now. 

"You okay?" he asked slinging the glaive over his shoulder. She nodded now taking a closer look at him. Around his neck hung a pair of goggles, like the ones in her dream. 

"Uh, yeah I'm fine," she replied shrugging her shoulders, "So what was that thing? Isn't this map supposed to be for new players?" 

"It is, but recently the game's been having a lot of problems and glitches involving the monsters. Me and my group have been trying to eliminate the monsters around problem areas, but they spark up so fast," he explained sighing softly and shaking his head. Kuromi chuckled placing her hand on her hip, "That's quite courteous of you guys. So what's your name?" 

"Well, on here I'm Axle"

"Nice to meet you Axle, the name's Kuromi." she replied shaking his hand gently. He smiled as he pulled his hand away after they finished. "Well I'm off. Hope to see you again," Kuromi said as she logged off and removed her headset sighing in relief. Maybe she would play again tomorrow. Kuromi turned looking to the clock and gasped looking at the time. 

12:00a.m. 

She quickly stood rushing to the bathroom to take her shower. She let herself get to caught up!

* * *

End Chapter One

Hey you're author Toka here! I finally got around to typing my first fan fiction. I hope you guys like it. And be sure to give me some positive criticism on how I can improve my work, and write the story better. I always appreciate good advice. Ja ne! And look out for Ch2 sometime soon. As soon as I finish I'll start typing it as well. 

And also as a complete bonus, if you're an artist and you decide to draw maybe a fan art of one of the characters from the story (Kuromi-ingame or real life, or Axle) or if you draw your own character as they would look in a Dot Hack style game, I might add your character into the story. But, be sure to tell me if they would be a good guy or a bad guy. ^^;;


	2. Chapter 2:Trials

It had now been almost a week since Kuromi had begun playing The World. Se had gotten understandably better at the game, and she had acquired a few friends that she often went treasure hunting with from time to time. However, she had not seen or heard anything from Axel; neither had she encountered any bugged monsters since her first day. She figured things must have calmed down.

She started up the game and noticed a message in her inbox.

AxelR Wrote:

Ah man, I hope I got the username right… Kuromi? Remember me? I was hoping to show you something I found I thought was cool. Meet me at keyword Little Forsaken Holy Ground, on the delta server, at around 5pm. I don't know what lvl you are now, but the dungeons around lvl30. Hope you can make it.

Kuromi read over the message and stifled a laugh. Was this his idea of some sort of e-date? It sounded interesting; she decided to give it a shot. Since it was almost 4:30 now, she decided to head on over. [A/N: In game now]Once inside, she took a quick glance around. It appeared to be a sort of mineshaft, with pipes carrying steaming water deeper into the caverns. Axel didn't appear to be here yet, so she took a seat onto the floor near the gate. Minutes later, he arrived carrying his same glaive weapon slung over his shoulder, but there was something else. A shorter, pink haired girl was standing behind him, holding a simple staff weapon. She appeared frightened, but it didn't bother Kuromi much. _A mage . . . but why bring her along?_ _The way he explained it I figured it would just be us two. _

"Who's your friend?" Kuromi asked with a smirk as she stood to her feet. Axel turned, looking to the pink haired girl.

"This is my friend Michiru. She just got started a few days ago," he explained as she stepped out from behind him hesitantly.

"It's n-nice to m-meet you . . ." Michiru added shyly, bowing her head. Kuromi nodded, offering a light smile, "So what's this thing you wanted to show me . . . err us?"

"It's a surprise," he replied heading off into the cavern, "just follow me." Michiru quickly caught up to him, following closely behind. Kuromi wasted no time catching up as well, curious to what the surprise was. As they explored along, Kuromi began to notice that this dungeon was devoid of any sort of monster life. If not for the constant whistling of the pipelines, it could have been quite peaceful. The group reached a large mechanical door that was seemingly locked, until Axel inserted something into it, causing it to open. Inside the room was a collection of treasure chests. Michiru perked up and ran over to one of the chests, eagerly starting to open it.

"Michiru wait!" Axel tried to call to her to stop, but the deed had been done. The chest opened slowly, revealing there to be nothing inside, much to Michiru's disappointment.

"Guys there's nothing inside this thing," Michiru called out to them, turning to face them. Axel face palmed as Kuromi pointed at the treasure chest in shock.

"Michiru watch out!" she yelled as Michiru turned to see the chest had now donned fangs and legs, creeping steadily towards her. She smacked it a good time over the head with her staff, though not inflicting much damage. She quickly dodged its attack, and then ran back over, hiding behind Axel and Kuromi.

"A mimic eh? Who would have thought to see one of these here? Kuromi grinned pulling out a pair of silver sub-machine guns. Her latest new weapon since she moved on from her beginner's rifle.

"That's the trap. This entire room is filled with mimics," Axel pointed out as the other chests followed suit, transforming as well, "and it's a little too late to run away." Axel pulled the glaive from his back, as the battle area closed in the area around them and the group of chests.

A few minutes passed and they were released from the battle area, Axel and Kuromi panting heavily. Michiru had stood by, healing them when she could.

"Heheh, too easy," Kuromi boasted with a slight laugh. Axel slung his glaive over his shoulder and chuckled, "So you did get a little better," he said jokingly. He made his way over to Michiru, making sure she was okay as Kuromi put away her guns.

"So . . . Why did you bring us here Axel? It obviously wasn't for the treasure, "Kuromi grinned, placing a hand on her hip.

"Nothing ever gets by you, huh?" Axel grinned. He noticed something behind Michiru and quickly pushed her to the side, however he was hit with the sneak attack in the process. His character became petrified, keeping him from moving or making actions.

The attack came from a surviving mimic monster. Kuromi quickly pulled out her guns again and fired at it, but it didn't take long to realize that the monster was bugged. Michiru was still trying to do something about Axel's petrified state, as the mimic drew steadily closer.

"Michi get out of there!" Kuromi called out to her. The mimic was too fast for her to react as it attacked her from behind, instantly KO'ing her. "Damn . . ." Kuromi unloaded another bunch of bullets into the monster. Click. Click. Click. _A bad time to be out of ammo . . . _She knew the only way to be able to defeat it, was with Axel's data drain. She jumped back dodging the mimic's attack and found herself pinned against an area wall.

"Dammit! Axel wake up!" she shouted closing her eyes tightly. She waited for it to happen, but it never did. Kuromi peeked her eyes open slowly looking for the reason she wasn't dead yet. The monster had taken a smaller form, almost resembling a cardboard box with legs. Axel was standing a few feet away panting and depetrified.

Meanwhile, two shadowed figures stood conversing in an alleyway of Delta root.

"So this girl can alter the game with her will?"

"It could possibly just be the power of her Avatar; we're unsure."

"Her powers combined with that boy's group of misfits. We'll have to take care of all of them soon. For just continue to watch them."

One of the figures nodded in reply and disappeared from view.

:"Soon my plans will be complete . . ."

The next day at school, Kuromi was walking down the hallway alone, which was a rare feat for her. Things had begun to settle down since the first day, but the new boy was still getting his fair share of attention from the female populace of the school.

"Hey there! You're Kuromi-san, aren't you?"

"Who wants to know?" Kuromi asked, turning in the direction the call came from. She met eyes with another girl who was smiling brightly to her. Her hair was a bright pink, and she had blue eyes. Her school uniform was like the others, except she wore pink arm warmers with ties of lace around the top and bottom, with matching leg warmers.

"We met yesterday, in The World. I'm Michiru. I looked up your info, and I noticed we attended the same school. So I hunted you down," Michiru explained with a soft giggle. Kuromi smiled and nodded. It felt nice to meet someone from the game in real life. Maybe she would meet Axel as well, though she highly doubted it.

"It's nice to meet you outside of the game Michiru-San," Kuromi replied. They happened to share a class so they spent the time talking about things here and there. Michiru was a year younger then Kuromi, but she had skipped a grade.

"So, Michi-Chan, do you know if Axel-San goes here as well?" Kuromi questioned curiously. Michiru shook her head slowly, "I don't think so, but he says the address on his info is old and that they moved recently. He hasn't updated it yet- ," the ringing of the bell, signaling for class to start interrupted her. A few more students took their seats laughing and talking amongst themselves. The teacher began to take roll.

"Maki Kurosawa"

"Here."

"Kuromi Renodo,"

"Here."

"Ryo Tomoyo," there was no answer, "Ryo?" There were whispers amongst the other students. Suddenly, the door opened up as the black haired boy stumbled into the class, scratching the back of his head nervously.

"Ha-ha . . . Sorry I'm late. I kind of overslept," he explained as he took a seat into the nearest empty chair. '_It's that new kid from before,'_ Kuromi thought to herself, glancing to the back of the class. He looked up as they caught eyes for only a moment. Kuromi quickly turned forward in her seat, a slight blush crawling it's way up to her face. _'Why do I feel so nervous around him?' _She was hardly the type to be nervous, especially not around guys. Mostly because, she wasn't interested in most of them. Michiru, who was sitting next to her, noticed this and nudged Kuromi's side playfully

"He's pretty cute, huh?"

"No," Kuromi replied flatly before giving Michiru a look. Michi just giggled and went back to her work.

Later that day, around lunch, Michiru and Kuromi made their way to the cafeteria; both deciding to get some lunch. A group of boys surrounded the two, practically drooling over them.

"Can we buy you lunch or something?"

"Sit at our table!"

"No sit at ours!" Everyone seemed to be offering. All of them fighting over who would sit with them.

"Does this usually happen everyday?" Michiru questioned turning her head to Kuromi. "You learn to get used to it," Kuromi replied, nodding her head. They both sat down at their own table with their lunch; it didn't take long for the boys to start arguing over who would sit with them. Michiru seemed to be enjoying her day of popularity. Ryo calmly walked into the cafeteria, followed by his usual band of fan girls. He sighed, taking his lunch and sat down on the opposite side of Kuromi and Michi's table.

"Who does this guy think he is?! Sitting so calmly at Kuromi-Sama's table!!" All the boys were in an uproar. Even the girls were complaining of how Kuromi and Michi were trying to steal their precious Ryo-Kun. By the time, any of them had bothered to pay attention; all three of them had already left the cafeteria.

Later, after Kuromi and Michiru went their separate ways, Kuromi logged on to the World again once she got home. When she arrived in the game, she found herself in the center of the Delta root town. She decided o do a little shopping for some supplies at a few of the guild shops. Numerous calls form store owners trying to bring in customers could be heard all through the area. Kuromi recognized a familiar voice and stumbled around until she spotted him. Axel was sitting a ways up ahead, selling from a stand with the symbol of a star on it. Kuromi made her way over and leaned onto the counter with a grin,

"So you never told me you had your own guild, let alone a shop," she inquired. Axle looked at her laughing nervously, "Yeah well we only started selling just recently. And It's not exactly—Oh! I almost forgot." He said standing up from the counter. He changed the shop to closed status and stepped from behind the counter.

"Kuromi, I wanted to show you something," he explained, signaling her to follow as he began to walk in another direction. Kuromi followed him until they reached a large dome structured building with steps leasing underground with a warp gate at the bottom of the stairs. Axel turned to her and handed her a small card like item, and Kuromi eyed it curiously.

"So what is this?" she asked looking up to him.

"It's a key card. It'll get you into our guild server from that warp point over there. You're officially a Star Knight," he replied smiling. Kuromi grinned and chuckled, "So, I'm one of you guys now? Awesome."

They both headed into the warp gate, landing them in another large room, built almost as if the living room in a regular home would be. The couches formed a circle around a large table. Seated on one of the couches, were two people, one male and the other female. The female, long blond hair reaching down past her shoulders with pale green eyes; her legs propped up on the couch beside her. She seemed to be scolding the male, black, short hair with blue eyes. He was leaned back into the couch, but didn't seem to be paying as much attention as he could have been. There was one other, Leaning forward over the railing that lined the outer walkway that lead to another area. His facial features hidden by the hood and mask he was wearing. The only visible things were his eyes, a dark brown in color.

"Guys this is Kuromi, she'll be joining us from today on," he said introducing her, "The two on the couch: the boy, Toka, Third in command, and Ayame, the girl, our Vice-Captain," Axel explained pointing to them as he went, "The one up there is Forte. He doesn't talk much, but he's pretty reliable." Kuromi glanced once to all of them, and then turned back to Axel.

"So who's the leader? That's you right?" she questioned curiously. Axel shook his head and motioned away the thought.

"No, no, no. I'm nowhere near that strong. I'm probably Fifth seat at best," he replied chuckling nervously, "The leader's a real mysterious guy. He hardly ever comes by the guild server, and he usually sends us all our missions and glitch sites through PM's—,"

"The guy's a real pain," Toka cut in from his seat, "But he single handedly collects the majority of our guild points, so I'm not one to complain."

"It's why our guild is in the top three, despite ours having one of the lowest in member counts," Ayame added. Kuromi blinked in surprise.

"But why is that? I'm sure plenty of people would want to join a guild as dedicated to helping the game as you guys are. It all sounds so exciting."

Axel shrugged and Ayame continued, "That's just it. You should know by now that only chosen few can even fight bugged monsters. Epitaph users or Avatar tamers, only people with Avatars can use the Data Drain. Everyone in this guild can use Avatars, with the exception of Axel; who seems to be able to use the Data Drain without one." Toka and Forte nodded in agreement, as Kuromi looked to Axel worried and confused.

_Why didn't he tell me? He knows I can't do any of that stuff. I didn't even know anything about this until today. . ._

Axel simply grinned and gave her a thumbs up; she figured he knew what he was doing.

"So Kuromi was it? What's your Avatar look like?" Toka asked, suddenly inches from her face. Kuromi took a step back nervously and laughed nervously.

"Huh?"

"You know! Everyone's Avatar has a different look. Mine's pretty awesome. You want to see?"

"Toka, you know we're not allowed to use our Avatars outside of Project break areas and emergencies," Ayame scolded, still seated on the couch. Toka sulked and mumbled, making his way back to the couch. Everyone, except Kuromi, looked up to the ceiling suddenly, and then to each other, all with the same determined look.

"Finally some action!" Toka shouted excitedly, "Bugged monster sightings in Delta server, Omega server, and Alpha server."

"Big job, we'll split into groups. I'll handle the one in Alpha, Kuromi you're new so you'll go with Toka to the one in Delta, and Axel and Forte will handle Omega. The keywords are in the message, Ayame commanded as everyone nodded in understanding. They all left, heading to their assigned locations, leaving only Toka and a very confused Kuromi.

"So you ready to get going Kuromi-San?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," Kuromi replied dismally. _This will be a long day._

_End Chapter 2_

_Okay, so after a long while of procrastination, I've finally decided to give you gives Chapter 2. I got a few good reviews on the first chapter that I was proud of for my first fanfic. And I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I tried to make it a little longer then the first chapter, but I assure you Chapter 3 is one of the longest...Or is it chapter 4.. Anywho, don't forget to R&R._

_~Tokashiro_


	3. Chapter 3:Aftermath

_"Guys this is Kuromi, she'll be joining us from today on," he said introducing her, "The two on the couch: the boy, Toka, Third in command, and Ayame, the girl, our Vice-Captain,"_

"_So who's the leader? That's you right?" she questioned curiously. Axel shook his head and motioned away the thought. _

_"Finally, some action!" Toka shouted excitedly, "Bugged monster sightings in Delta server, Omega server, and Alpha server." _

_"Big job; we'll split into groups. I'll handle the one in Alpha, Kuromi you're new so you'll go with Toka to the one in Delta, and Axel and Forte will handle Omega._

**Chapter 3- "Aftermath"**

Kuromi sighed as she trudged her feet along, following behind a more enthusiastic Toka, slowly making their way to the location of the bugged monster sightings.

"This is a pretty low level dungeon so things should be pretty simple," Toka pointed out continuing along.

Things are never simple when it involves things like this," Kuromi muttered under her breath. Toka kept his pace pretending not to hear. After a good 15 minutes, they had plotted out the entire dungeon, retracing once or twice for insurance. And still not a single sign of any bugged monsters. Toka sighed and shrugged his shoulders as they stood in the center of the room.

"Nothing here but a couple of weaklings, not even a boss monster to wail on. Just useless guardian treasure," he complained, kicking at the floor slightly, "Maybe it was just a false alarm or something."

"Who would play tricks on us about something like that?" Kuromi questioned with a some what disappointed look, but relieved at the same time. Toka looked up for a moment in a sort of daze, then a look of shock spread over his features as he quickly turned back to Kuromi. "There's been a problem. Ayame ran into all three of the bugged monsters that were reported, she can't handle that many alone," Toka explained, placing his hand on his head with a shake of the head. "You can hold down the fort here right?" He barely gave her time to answer, let alone react, before warping out of the dungeon leaving Kuromi alone.

"Great . . ." Kuromi sighed and began to glance about the room; the sound of dripping water resonated throughout the entire room. She looked to the exit blankly. _I might as well leave; there obviously isn't anything here_.

"Well isn't this just perfect? My little plan worked out marvelously," came the low voice of another male from the back of the room. Kuromi quickly turned toward the source of the voice. A blue portal appeared, as a hooded figure in all black apparel stepped out.

"I don't remember seeing one quite as cute as you with their group before," the hooded man spoke, "Are you a new Avatar user?"

Kuromi took a half step back nervously and shook her head, "N-No. . . I can't even use powers like theirs,"

"Hmm, in any case . . . you're hanging around with them, so you're involved some how," he said again and pulled out a large, triple bladed scythe. Kuromi shakily pulled out her handguns; fighting would be her only way out, she was sure of, but there was no way to tell how strong this guy was. She noticed something floating over his head; a shadow-like ghost that looked something like a bull, hovering the hooded man. _Just like with Axel. . . _

"Y-You're an epitaph user too?!" Kuromi took another few steps back again, now a little frightened.

"_You have to be really careful with Avatar powers," Toka explained to Kuromi, turning to face her while walking backwards, "They're very powerful, but also extremely dangerous." Kuromi gave him a confused look, raising a brow. "Dangerous? How so? This is a game right? If I die here I can always just restart." Toka wagged a finger at her, with a serious look on his face. "Axel obviously wasn't very open with you. If a regular player is killed using Data Drain, they can lose all their data and revert to level one, but the odds of that are slim compared to a worse scenario." "Worse? Like?" "The player the player can be put into a comatose state in the real world, or even death." Toka put simply shaking his head._

The man removed his hood, revealing a silver-streaked, black haired male with red eyes. They were slim and piercing, like daggers.

"Ah, so you can see them too?" he grinned, "that means you must be an Epitaph user. Only other Epitaph users can see Avatars." He lunged forward, letting the scythe back to prepare for the first attack. Kuromi jumped to the side avoiding the first swing of the scythe; he quickly followed up with a sideways swipe as Kuromi moved again to avoid it. _'He's not moving that fast. Maybe I still have a shot.'_

"Zook Rum!" the boy shouted, causing a barrage of stone boulders to fall down from the air above her. Kuromi quickly rolled to the left to avoid them only to walk right into the man's follow up attack. A sideways slash sent her flying backward; she skidded to a stop, landing on one knee before standing back up to her feet.

"Heheh, so you're pretty resilient. That's good, because now I don't have to hold back anymore," the man grinned as he put his scythe away. He reached behind his back as he materialized two dagger-like weapons. The blades were jagged and a little longer then most. "Adept rouge . . ." Kuromi muttered under her breath. Dealing with would be dangerous, especially so seeing that he could potentially data drain her at any moment. There might be other powers that avatars granted that she didn't know about yet, and that alone scared her enough. Kuromi fired off a few shots at the man, which he aptly dodged; moving left and right as he made his way closer to her. Once he was within reach, he slashed downward in her direction. Kuromi tumble flipped back to avoid the attack. He continued the assault; not letting up as she tried to avoid the bulk of the attacks. She wasn't sure how much longer she could keep all this up. He slashed once more quickly, as Kuromi stumbled back into an area wall. She winced, knowing that she was now cornered. She shot a few bullets at him, but he blocked them easily continuing to walk toward her slowly.

"I'm going to enjoy ripping you to shreds," the man said with a smirk, twirling the dagger in his hand slowly. Kuromi panicked backing into the wall a little more.

"Get away from me creep!" she yelled out at him defiantly. An invisible force pounded into the man, sending him flying backwards. He landed on his feet skidding to a stop. Kuromi blinked wondering what had happened. _D-did I really do that?_ The man looked at her with a bewildered stare. "Was that your avatar? I didn't see one, so how?" he glared at her, with a little more determined look, but his morale quickly sank when Forte's figure slowly made his way into the room.

"You lucked out this time girlie! Don't think you can mess with Genesis and get away with it," he yelled as he quickly warped out of the dungeon. Kuromi breathed a sigh of relief and fell back onto her bottom, breathing heavily. Forte looked down at her with his piercing brown eyes; Kuromi looked up at him oddly, titling her head to the side slightly.

"Why are you here? Is Axel with you?" she questioned, slowly standing back to her feet. Forte turned his head to the door, Kuromi following his look, just as Axel rushed into the room. He stopped in front of Kuromi, looking her over carefully.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt or anything?" Axel questioned worriedly. This wasn't normal for him. She usually saw him as Mr. Brightside.

"I'm fine Axel," she reassured him with a smile, "I _can_ take care of myself y'know. Speaking of which, who was that guy?"

"A member of Genesis. They're a group of hackers devoted to causing chaos and disorder in The World. You could say they're our mortal enemies," Axel explained with a more serious tone. Forte nodded silently in agreement, his arms crossed.

"They're hackers?" Kuromi questioned curiously, "Is that why they can use Avatars too?"

"What?! Kuromi are you absolutely sure about that?" Axel questioned with a shocked look. "Well he said so himself, and I saw it with my own eyes," Kuromi replied, "I'm guessing that's not a good thing, right?" Axel's face grew dark as he focused his view on the ground. Kuromi looked at him worriedly, taking a small step closer to him.

"Kuromi, this isn't a game anymore. You should go . . . don't hang around us anymore," Axel muttered, still focused on the ground. Kuromi laughed softly waving it off, "Ha-ha, that was a good one Axel. You almost sounded serious there for a second. I told you I can handle myself just fine," she said reaching out to touch his hand. Axel slapped her hand away and turned from her.

"I _am _serious . . . this is too dangerous. Forte, we have to go ahead and warn the others," Axel instructed as Forte nodded in response. They both warped out, leaving Kuromi behind. _What's got him so worked up?_ She stared at the area they had been standing. She sighed softly and warped out as well; logging out of the game a few minutes later.

The next day at school was slow and dull. Kuromi had told Michiru everything about what had happened the other day. She stared at Kuromi in shock, then huffed crossing her arms.

"You always have so much fun! I wish I were a higher level, then I could go on awesome adventures too," Michi complained.

"I wouldn't exactly call it fun," Kuromi chuckled nervously, "But I got some free time today. So I can play with you today, and we'll get you leveled up in no time." Michiru smiled happily and nodded. Ryo walked by the two not seeming to notice them, but Kuromi placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

"Hey Ryo-san. Where's your army of fan-girls today?" Kuromi asked jokingly.

"Eh, lost them. They're not a very bright bunch," Ryo replied with a shrug. He looked as if something else was on his mind as he talked to her, almost like he wasn't paying attention.

"Is something bothering you Ryo-san?" Kuromi asked tilting her head to the side. He shook his head as he snapped back to reality. "Uh, no everything's fine. Really I'm okay," he responded. Michiru made her way over as well, smiling brightly.

"Ryo-chan, do you play The World? Kuromi and I were about to go play, maybe you could join us?" Michi offered, looking up to him.

"Umm, sorry but I have to take care of the . . . yeah. See ya," he chuckled nervously before hurriedly walking on the way he was going. Michiru and Kuromi blinked confusedly and looked to each other. Each gave a shrug and continued on their way home. Kuromi sat at home waiting for Michiru's arrival. She was going to be staying over at Kuromi's so they could both play there, then walk to school together in the morning. Michiru finally found her way back, carrying her backpack full of her stuff.

"Sorry it took so long," she apologized, taking off her back, "this stuff was kind of heavy." Kuromi shook her head, "Ha ha, don't worry about it. Let's get this up to my room." Michiru waved to Kuromi's mother as they passed her on their way into the room. Kuromi closed the door behind them as Michiru emptied out her laptop, headset, and controller from the backpack. It didn't take long for them to get set up ad begin playing the game. Once inside, they met up at the warp gate in the delta root town.

"Hey, you think maybe Axel-chan can come with us?" Michiru questioned as she held her staff behind her back. Kuromi sighed waving it off, "I told you, he doesn't want us playing with him anymore. Who needs him anyway," she scoffed, crossing her arms. Michiru looked at her worriedly for a second, but shook her head and just went along with it. They went to several dungeons that night; quickly getting Michiru nearly to level 35 from where she started somewhere around level 10.

"This is great!" Michiru giggled, "We're doing so well!"

"And you're getting plenty of rare items too," Kuromi added as they were on their way through their last dungeon of the day. It was soon fairly obvious after the first few minutes of searching; the dungeon was devoid of any monsters.

"This one's empty," Kuromi said with a sigh, putting her rifle away. They found the guardian treasure, and Michiru took no time rushing to open it. [A/N: You think she would have learned her lesson about opening chests by now.] She whacked it one good time on the top, and the guardian statue behind it fell to the ground. The chest however, remained unopened.

"Huh?" Michiru questioned hitting another couple of times, all to no avail. "Maybe it's some kind of glitch or something?" Kuromi shrugged her shoulders and started for the door, "Let's go, maybe we'll have enough time for one more dungeon," Kuromi added with a yawn. Michiru took one last look at the chest before turning to follow Kuromi out. Suddenly, the chest opened, releasing a black mass of matter. It slithered its way across the floor, making its way to Michiru. Then, it jumped out latching itself on to her, causing Michi to scream out in pain. Kuromi turned around in shock, running back to Michiru.

"Michi?! Michi, are you okay?"

The dark matter absorbed her body completely, and then abruptly disappeared into the ground, leaving nothing behind. "Michiru? Where'd you go?" Kuromi queried looking around. "She's still logged in . . . She's not responding." Kuromi took off her headset and turned to Michiru who lied there, face-up on the floor; her headset still over her head. Kuromi held her up and shook her gently.

"Michi! Michi, say something!" Kuromi said, trying to get her to respond. She was still breathing, but only slightly. Kuromi removed the headset from her eyes. They were glazed over and blank. Kuromi started tearing up faintly still shaking Michiru's unresponsive body.

**Chapter 3 end**

Haha, that's some cliffhanger there, huh? Sorry to leave you guys hanging at such a dramatic moment, but I'll try to make it up in Chapter 4. Just a little sneak, but you finally get to meet the leader of the guild next chapter as well. And some complications involving a certain character that never talks. Well don't forget to leave reviews and thanks for reading! ^^

**The Life of Times of the Star Knights:**

Toka: Hey Hey! Guys, I found something interesting!

Ayame: Like?

Toka *Holds out a black blob of goo*

Forte: . . .

Ryo: What the crap is that?

Toka: I have no idea. It looked really cool, and I found it in a dungeon.

Ayame: You sure it's safe? Looks a little grungy

Toka: I'm naming him Flubber.

Ryo: Like that 90's movie?

Toka: Shut up! It's original!

Forte: . . .

*Michiru walks in*

Michiru: Hey guys! What's-

*Michiru looks eyes with the blob in Toka's hands. Flails arms and runs out of the room*

Toka: What's up with her?

**END**


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